Dispensing containers



Oct. 13, 1964 A. B. STOREY 3,

DISPENSING CONTAINERS Original Filed Dec. 2, 1958 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 lib Oct. 13, 1964 A. B. STOREY DISPENSING CONTAINERS 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Original Filed Dec. 2, 1958 United States Patent 3,152,690 DISPENSING CONTAINERS Alvin B. Storey, Matthews, N.C., assignor to Celanese Corporation of America, New York, N.Y., a corporation of Delaware Original application Dec. 2, 1958, Ser. No. 777,672, new Patent No. 3,033,396, dated May 8, 1962. Divided and this application Feb. 13, 1962, Ser. No. 185,172.

4 Claims. (Cl. 206-566) This invention relates to multi-section cartons or containers for use in storing and shipping cigarette filter plugs and to dispensers or hoppers for use in combination with such containers.

Where cigarette filter plug elements are manufactured at a location distant from where they are to be used, it is necessary to pack the same into cartons or boxes which are then shipped to cigarette manufacturers. Upon arrival at the cigarette-making plant, it is then necessary to unpack the filter plug elements and to transfer them manually to the cigarette-making machines or to conveyors leading to such machines. This, of course, is an expensive and time-consuming procedure both in terms of the labor involved and the contamination and spoilage of the filter plug elements during the handling thereof.

It is an important object of this invention, therefore, to overcome the aforesaid disadvantages and to provide means by which cigarette filter plugs or plug elements may be efficiently and economically handled from the time they are produced until they are used in a cigarette-making machine.

It is another object of the present invention to provide a carton or like container which may be used as a package in which the filter plugs can be shipped from the manufacturing location to the cigarette-making plant and which may then be used as a magazine for a hopper or dispenser employed in feeding the filter plugs to the cigarette-making machine or onto a conveyor leading thereto.

It is still another object of the present invention to pro vide a multi-section box one section of which, when disassembled, can be used as -a magazine from which filter plugs are fed to a hopper-shaped dispenser and then to a cigarette-making machine.

More particularly, the present invention contemplates the provision of a box or carton consisting of two mating sections, one of which may be designated a base, and the other of which may be designated a lid. Both the lid and the base have the general configuration of a rectangular prism and are open at one of their wider faces and at one of their sides, the lid being provided with a gummed or adhesive flap at its open side. The construction is such that when the lid is fitted over the base with one of the side walls of the lid covering the open side of the base and with the flap positioned over one of the side walls of the base, the flap may be sealed to the last-named side Wall, thereby fully closing the carton or box on all sides.

The present invention further contemplates the use of said box in combination with a hopper-like dispenser struc ture having an upper rack or supporting frame portion and a lower funnel or hopper portion, the rack being open at its bottom and in communication with the interior of the funnel. The rack portion is dimensioned in accordance with the outer dimensions of the box or carton.

Thus, when it is desired to dispense the plugs from the carton or pack-age in which they were shipped and/or stored, the flap is disconnected or severed from the side wall of the base, for example, and the carton placed into the frame portion above the hopper portion in such a manner that the open side of the base faces downwardly and toward the open bottom of the frame portion, whereupon withdrawal of the lid from the base will permit the plugs to drop directly into the hopper portion.

The foregoing and other objects, advantages and characteristics of the present invention will be more fully understood from the following detailed description and the accompanying drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 is a perspective elevational view of a filter plug package or carton according to the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a perspective view of the base with the lid removed;

FIG. 3 is a perspective view, partly broken away, of the lid without the base;

FIG. 4 is a perspective view of the carton or like container in partly assembled or disassembled condition, illustrating the manner in which the lid and base are juxtaposed to one another;

FIG. 5 is a perspective view of a dispenser constructed in accordance with the present invention for use with a container as shown in FIGS. 1 to 4;

FIG. 6 is a top plan view of the dispenser shown in FIG. 5; and

FIG. 7 is a perspective view illustrating the manner in which a container according to the present invention is used as a magazine for the dispenser of FIG. 5.

Referring first to FIGS. 1 to 4, it will be seen that a carton or box 10 as provided by the present invention comprises two mating sections herein referred to as a base or article receiver 11 and a lid 12. The base 11 has the general configuration of a rectangular prism and includes a wide base wall 13 and three side walls 14, 15 and 16, while the lid 12, which also has the general configuration of a rectangular prism and is slightly larger than the base 11, includes a Wide base wall 17 and three side Walls 18, 19 and 20. Thus, both the lid and the base are open at one side and at one of the wider faces thereof. The lid 12, however, is additionally provided with a gummed or adhesive flap 21 which is attached to the base wall 17 at the edge of the latter coinciding with the open side of the lid. The bodies of the lid and base are preferably made of any relatively strong and stiff packaging material, such as cardboard or polyethylene (other res inous polymer-type sheet materials may also be used), while the flap 21 of the lid 12 may be either constituted by the fourth side Wall of the lid suitably cut out at its side edges 2111 or by a strip of kraft paper or plastic tape having a gum or adhesive coated on one of its faces and attached to the base wall 17 of the lid. The wall 20 may be labeled with the legend TOP or the like to indicate the upright position thereof.

As will be readily understood by reference to FIG. 4, assembly of the carton ll) is effected by sliding the lid 12 over the base 11 in the direction of the arrow A, the side wall 16 of the base having been first inserted through the open side of the lid, whereby the base will be located between the side walls 18 and 20 of the lid with the open side of the base being covered by the side wall 20. When the carton sections have been fully pushed together, the flap 21 is bent around and laid onto the side wall 14 of the base, moistened if necessary, and adhered to the said side wall 14. The completed carton will now look as shown in FIG. 1. It is to be noted that when the carton lid is fully packed with filter plugs or plug elements (the term filter elements is herein employed to designate relatively long strips of fiter material in rod-form which are later to be cut to proper filter plug size), the side walls 15 and 16 will be slightly bulged outwardly and pressed into firm frictional contact with the side walls 18 and 19 of the lid so as to prevent opening of the carton during transport or incidental handling. Tape may also be used to provide a more positive closure. Disassembly of 3 the carton is effected by detaching or severing the flap 21 from the side wall 14 of the base and sliding the lid relative to the base in the direction of the arrow B.

Turning now to FIGS. to 7, it will be seen that the dispenser unit 22 provided in accordance with the present invention for use in combination with the hereinbefore described carton or box 19 comprises a lower funnel or hopper portion 23 and an upper rack or supporting frame portion 24. The funnel portion 23 is substantially rectangular in cross-section and has converging slanted front and rear walls 25 terminating at their lower ends in a pair of substantially parallel walls 26 of an outlet section 27 provided with an outlet opening 28. Mounted atop the funnel portion 23 is a rectangular ledge 29 defining an inlet opening 30 for the funnel. Afiixed to two adjacent sides of the ledge 29 by any suitable means and extending upwardly therefrom is an angled wall member Est-31a, and to the side of the said ledge 2 opposite the wall member part 3-1 are afiixed by any desired means a plurality (three are shown) of angle members or bracing elements 32. Thus, the rack or supporting frame portion 24 is basically constituted by the elements 31, 31a and 32, and the ledge 29 may be considered as constituting either the base member of the frame portion 24 or the top of the funnel portion 23. Both the openings 28 and 3t) are, of course, made sufficiently wide to accommodate, i.e., permit passage of, the cigarette filter plugs or plug elements being manufactured and shipped.

In use, the strings or strips of filter material, usually in rod form, are cut by the manufacturer thereof into plug elements 33 of suitable length, say 90 mm., and these plug elements are then stacked into the base or article receiver 11 of the carton which is then in the position shown in FIG. 2, the longitudinal axes of thefilter plug elements extending perpendicularly to the base wall 13. The lid 12 is then slid onto and attached to the base 11 as explained hereinabove with reference to FIG. 4. The completed and fully packed carton is then ready for storage and/ or shipping to a cigarette manufacturer.

When the carton has been received at the cigarette manufacturing plant and it is desired to employ the plug elements 33 for the making of filter cigarettes, the flap 21 is first opened or detached from the side wall 14 of the base 11, and the entire carton is inverted so that the side wall 2t) of the lid (which may be labeled TOP as set forth hereinabove) is at the bottom, which will, of course, dispose the open side of the base 11 at the bottom of the carton. The latter is now inserted bodily and flap first into the space between the wall member part 31 and the angle members 32 of the supporting frame portion 24 of the dispenser structure 22, the lower end 27 of which may be positioned directly above a conveyor 35 (indicated diagrammatically). When the carton has been fully inserted into the dispenser, to the extent permitted by the wall member part 31a, the lid 12 is withdrawn from the base 11, as indicated by the arrow C in FIG. 7, which frees the now open bottom of the base and permits the plug elements 33 to fall through the inlet opening 34 into the funnel portion 23 and thence through the outlet opening 28 onto the aforesaid conveyor, as indicated by the arrow D. None of the filter plug elements can, of course, fall laterally out of the dispenser 22 since the wall member part 31 now covers the open wider face of the base 11 which was previously covered by the wall 17 of the lid 12. Once on the conveyor, the plug elements may be fed to a suitable cutting machine or if they were shipped in finally cut condition, directly to a cigarette making machine, indicated as 36, diagrammatically.

From the foregoing description it will be understood that the present invention provides a package or container which can be easily filled with articles of the type referred to and assembled for shipping purposes, and which can be a tainer with a specially constructed supporting and dispensing structure is further particularly advantageous in that it enables the user of the said articles to avoid the need for taking special precautions in the unpacking and subsequent handling of these articles, which has heretofore not been possible. Thus, the present invention renders the manufacture of filter cigarettes more economical than is now the case, inasmuch as the cigarette manufacturer will be able to reduce his expenses both in the labor and time required to unpack the filter elements and feed them to the cigarette making location, and in the amount of filter elements wasted due to becoming soiled or otherwise unfit for use during manual handling.

Although the present invention has been described with reference to the manufacture of filter cigarettes, it will be appreciated that its application is not so limited, since the disclosed multi-section container and the associated dispenser may be used in packaging, storing, shipping and dispensing other articles than filter plugs or plug elements.

This application is a division of Serial No. 777,672, filed December 2, 1958, now US. Patent No. 3,033,396, granted May 8, 1962.

It is to be understood that the foregoing detailed description is merely given by way of illustration and that many variations may be made therein without departing from the spirit of my invention.

Having described my invention, what I desire to secure by Letters Patent is:

1. A multi-section, separable container, comprising a mating article receiver and lid, said receiver comprising a base wall and a plurality of side walls extending from said base wall, said receiver being open at only one of its sides and at its face opposite said base wall, said lid likewise comprising a base wall and a plurality of side walls extending from the latter, said lid being open at one of its sides and at its face opposite said last-named base wall, said lid being provided at its open side with a flap hingedly attached to said base wall of said lid and securable to one of the side walls of said receiver, said receiver and said lid being juxtaposed with said open face and open side of said receiver covered, respectively, by said base wall and one of said side walls of said lid, with said flap in faceto-face relationship to said side wall to which it is securable and with said open side substantially perpendicular and adjacent to said latter wall opposite one of said side walls of said receiver.

2. A multi-section, separable container, comprising a mating article receiver and lid each having the general configuration of a rectangular prism, said receiver comprising a base wall and three side walls extending from said base wall, said receiver being open at its fourth side and at its face opposite said base wall, said lid likewise comprising a base wall and three side walls extending from the latter, said lid being open at its fourth side and at its face opposite said last-named base wall, said lid being provided at its fourth side with a flap hingedly attached to said base wall of said lid and securable to one of the side Walls of said receiver adjacent to said open side of said receiver, said receiver and said lid being juxtaposed with said open face and fourth side of said receiver covered, respectively, by said base wall and one of said side walls of said lid, with said flap in face-to-face relationship to said side wall to which it is securable and having said open side substantially perpendicular and adjacent to said latter wall opposite one of said side walls of said receiver.

3. A package comprising, in combination, a multi-section, separable container, comprising a mating article receiver and lid each having the general configuration of a rectangular prism, said receiver comprising a base wall and three side walls extending from said base Wall, said receiver being open at its fourth side and at its face opposite said base Wall, said lid likewise comprising a base wall and three side walls extending from the latter, said lid being open at its fourth side and at its face opposite said last-named base wall, said lid being provided at its fourth side with a flap adapted to be secured to one of the side walls of said receiver, said receiver and said lid being adapted to be juxtaposed with said open face and fourth side of said receiver covered, respectively, by said base Wall and one of said side Walls of said lid and with said flap opposite one of said side Walls of said receiver, and a plurality of generally cylindrical cigarette filter plugs disposed within said container with their axes extending perpendicularly to the base Walls of said receiver and lid.

4. A package according to claim 3, wherein said plugs are each 90 mm. in length.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS Jaeger Ian. 29, 1884 OKelly May 28, 1889 Naplier Aug. 16, 1910 Moss et a1. Mar. 20, 1928 Appelbaum May 29, 1945 Archer Apr. 19, 1949 Tomczak Aug. 23, 1949 Schaefer Dec. 25, 1951 Troy Feb. 23, 1954 Booth Nov. 6, 1956 

3. A PACKAGE COMPRISING, IN COMBINATION, A MULTI-SECTION, SEPARABLE CONTAINER, COMPRISING A MATING ARTICLE RECEIVER AND LID EACH HAVING THE GENERAL CONFIGURATION OF A RECTANGULAR PRISM, SAID RECEIVER COMPRISING A BASE WALL AND THREE SIDE WALLS EXTENDING FROM SAID BASE WALL, SAID RECEIVER BEING OPEN AT ITS FOURTH SIDE AND AT ITS FACE OPPOSITE SAID BASE WALL, SAID LID LIKEWISE COMPRISING A BASE WALL AND THREE SIDE WALLS EXTENDING FROM THE LATTER, SAID LID BEING OPEN AT ITS FOURTH SIDE AND AT ITS FACE OPPOSITE SAID LAST-NAMED BASE WALL, SAID LID BEING PROVIDED AT ITS FOURTH SIDE WITH A FLAP ADAPTED TO BE SECURED TO ONE OF THE SIDE WALLS OF SAID RECEIVER, SAID RECEIVER AND SAID LID BEING ADAPTED TO BE JUXTAPOSED WITH SAID OPEN FACE AND FOURTH SIDE OF SAID RECEIVER COVERED, RESPECTIVELY, BY SAID BASE WALL AND ONE OF SAID SIDE WALLS OF SAID LID AND WITH SAID FLAP OPPOSITE ONE OF SAID SIDE WALLS OF SAID RECEIVER, AND A PLURALITY OF GENERALLY CYLINDRICAL CIGARETTE FILTER PLUGS DISPOSED WITHIN SAID CONTAINER WITH THEIR AXES EXTENDING PERPENDICULARLY TO THE BASE WALLS OF SAID RECEIVER AND LID. 